WASHINGTON — Congress is eyeing not only the loose change that harried travelers leave behind at airport checkpoints but also the unclaimed clothing.

Legislation awaiting House action would require the Transportation Security Administration to distribute unclaimed clothing to homeless or needy veterans and their families in addition to turning over unclaimed money to the USO for its airport programs in support of the military.

“As the American people rush through airports every week, it is not uncommon for scarves, hats and other articles of clothing to be left at TSA security checkpoints,” Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., wrote her colleagues, seeking support for her Clothe a Homeless Hero Act. “This adds up to thousands of pounds of abandoned clothes annually.”

While TSA knows that travelers left behind $376,480.39 in the 2010 fiscal year, the agency could not immediately say how much clothing went unclaimed, and what happened to it.Click here to read more

A passenger put his loose change inside of his shoe while he uses a plastic carrier at a checkpoint in Terminal A at DFW International Airport in Dallas, Texas, on April 17, 2012. Kye R. Lee/Dallas Morning News/MCT Photo by